Scenes from Nevada

Well, it looks like I did take a few (very few) pictures during the trip, after all. I guess once we got to Sparks, I must have figured that there wasn't much worth preserving for the ages.

Sorry that the video is dark. This was the room we stayed in when we were in Vegas. The Venetian is an "all suites" hotel, and I have really wanted to stay there since we visited in November. One funny thing about the floor layout: when you get off the elevator and step out of the elevator lobby, you're in a circular room, with halls leading off in three directions. On the archway above the first hall it reads, "Suites 100 - 199". The second hall is labeled, "Suites 200 - 299". The third hall reads, "Ice Suites 300 - 399". We were in Suite 317, so this was our hall. When Beth checked in the following night, she got a room on our floor, but in a 200 suite. I was so curious to see how her room differed from ours, because she had just a regular suite, but I had an Ice Suite. When I got to her room, I couldn't tell any difference (other than her view was much better). It was puzzling. Then, later that night, when we were returning to the room to pick something up between dinner and the show, I voiced my puzzlement to her. In the instant that the words actually left my mouth, I realized that I was reading it wrong. It didn't say "Ice Suites". It said, "Ice Suites". Yep, my room WAS special. I was closer to the ice machine than she was. What a dope!

After arriving Wednesday, we "took a nap" from 4:00pm to 4:30am. When we woke up, we walked down the Strip for a healthy breakfast at Fat Burger. Deeelicious. We walked back up to Caesar's Palace, and then decided to walk downtown. On the way, we saw that it would probably take all day to walk there, so we decided to ride the enclosed double decker bus that runs up and down the Strip. It's called "The Deuce", and for $5.00 you have unlimited on and off privileges for 24 hours. We caught it going the wrong way, so by the time we reached downtown, we had traveled the entire Strip. It was actually pretty fun, but Ray and I did both escape into our books after about 30 minutes. Below are some pictures from the front seat on the top deck of The Deuce.

Friday, we drove over the Hoover Dam and into Arizona to the Grand Canyon (West). Below are some shots taken at Guano Point (so named for the bat guano that they used to mine). Some shots with people...

Some shots of scenery...including the Colorado River, the drop off the side of the trail (pictures don't do this one justice), Guano Point, and the top half of my head in front of the Canyon.

Saturday, we got up and drove from Vegas to Reno/Sparks. Beth had already warned me that it was a monotonous drive, with very few places to stop on the way. I still had no idea. Here are some pictures from the scenic drive.

This one below, to me, was the most scenic part of the trip (aw, how sweet!):

The only pictures I took once we reached our final destination were the three below. We decided to drive to Carson City, which is up the mountain from Reno. It was a nice drive, and the houses that people are building on the side of the mountain are really something to see. Some of them were amazing. About half way up, we got to this scenic overlook that looked like it used to be a place for camping. There were some old brick fire pits and what looked like old campsites. I don't mean old as in the 1890's. I mean old as in maybe the 1980's. There was also an outlook/alcove little thing that we climbed up to in order to take these pictures. If you're wondering why I have that look on my face, it's because I'm deathly afraid of sitting on either a used condom or hypodermic needle. Yes - it is used for things other than camping these days. The smell was like an elementary school bathroom, but the pictures were nice, with the valley and hills in the background.

That's all I got, folks! Hope you enjoyed it.